AIDS researcher: Despite Magic’s success, much work left to find cure

By Russ Britt

The battle against HIV and AIDS is not over, and it’s a mistake to think that just because celebrities like Earvin “Magic” Johnson are living with it that it has been beaten, according to one of the world’s premier AIDS researchers.

Appearing with Johnson onstage at the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles Monday, Dr. David Ho said a cure for the deadly disease has yet to be discovered even though promises of finding a vaccine were made during the Clinton administration. One patient has been cured, but that was due to a bone marrow transplant that helped replace his immune system.

“I think AIDS has fallen off the [radar] because it’s no longer an automatic death sentence,” Ho said.

Success stories like those of Johnson, still vibrant after announcing he was diagnosed with HIV in November 1991, are not always the rule, said Ho, who was Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1996 for developing protease inhibitors that helped to get the virus under control. It depends largely on an individual’s makeup, exercise regimen and diet.

Said Johnson: “People think if I get HIV, I can be like Magic, and that’s not true.”

Johnson was a star point guard with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five National Basketball Association titles and three most-valuable-player trophies before contracting the virus. He retired immediately, unretired briefly, then spent a few more years in the league as a player and coach. He eventually became a successful Los Angeles businessman and is now part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.

Johnson said he started out receiving AZT treatments then went on to various AIDS drug cocktails that kept the virus under control. Asked by sportscaster Al Michaels, who moderated the discussion, if he thought he was going to die, Johnson said no.

“I never thought I was going to die,” he said. “But was I planning in case I did? Yes.”

Johnson said the experience took him out of his comfort zone, to say the least.

“I’m a very disciplined man,” he said, recalling the first few days after hearing of the diagnosis. “So now I’m undisciplined and I have to deal with that.”

But he said that he gets up early, exercises and takes his medications once a day.

“The same 30 drugs that are available to me are available to [anyone],” he said. “I’m not on any magical drugs.”

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